succeeded his father Leonidas II. (B.C. 236). He was a man of an enterprising spirit, and devoted his energies to effect the restoration of the ancient discipline of Lycurgus. He suppressed the senate because they opposed his designs, poisoned his colleague Eurydamidas, and illegally raised his own brother Euclidiadas to the throne. He made war against the Achaeans in order to destroy the Achaean league, and for this purpose concluded an alliance with Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Aratus, the general of the Achaeans, however, called Antigonus to his assistance; and Cleomenes, defeated at Sellasia, retired into Egypt to the court of Ptolemy Euergetes, whither his wife and children had preceded him as hostages. Ptolemy received him with great cordiality; but his successor, Ptolemy Philopater, jealous of the safety of his crown, treated him with marked disrespect, and threw him into prison on the charge of conspiring against his life. Cleomenes, however, effected his escape; but after a vain attempt to raise an insurrection, he put himself to death (B.C. 220), and his body was exposed on a cross by order of the king.